The American Farm Bureau is looking to get past the election this week in hopes it might improve prospects for a new farm bill.
Farm Bureau Director of Government Affairs Joe Gilson says getting the election out of the way could be a plus for AFB’s top priority, which is an updated, modernized farm bill. He says, “Well, I think it always helps when you can get past an election for politics to be taken out, and a focus can be on policy.”
A presidential election year is never the best time to do a farm bill. That’s been the case much of this year as the two parties have retreated to their corners to fight for key farm bill constituencies.
Gilson says this election has meant a lot of uncertainty. “What kind of Congress it looks like, and who will be in the White House next year? There are a lot of variables in outcomes that we’re not sure.”
Those variables are about to be cleared up. But crops and livestock don’t live by the political clock. And Gilson says the clock farmers use has run out of time.He says, “So, we’re just going to continue to make the point that farmers have waited two years for a farm bill, and that hasn’t gotten done, regardless of the political outcomes.”
Outcomes that may still have to be sorted out with a new Congress and new administration in a new year.
Story by Berns Bureau Washington/Matt Kaye; courtesy of NAFB News Service
